Pages

Friday, March 20, 2015

Oil
touched its lowest level since 2009, dragging Asian energy shares
down amid increased projections for US production. The dollar
weakened from its strongest in more than a decade to major peers
ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting.

Singapore's anti-trust
regulator blocked a takeover for the first time when it
provisionally ruled last week that Malaysian IHH Healthcare Bhd's
planned purchase of a local unit of India's Fortis Healthcare would
lessen competition.

SGX on issued a trade
with caution regarding Civmec Limited, an investment holding company
that provides heavy engineering and construction services to
resources and infrastructure sectors in Australia.

Bank of Singapore said that
rate hike by the Fed in September now looks more probable, with the
US central bank pushing back expectations for the path of rate
increases over the coming couple of years.

Blumont Group is planning a
rights cum warrants issue to raise about $27 million in net proceeds
if the rights shares are fully subscribed.

Oil resumed its slump after
rallying from the lowest price in six years as focus returned to
record supply in the US, the world's biggest consumer.

Gold rose to its highest in
nearly two weeks on after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled a
slower pace of interest rate hike and gave a cautious outlook for
the U.S. economy.

The Federal Reserve opened
the door to the first interest-rate increase in almost a decade,
while also indicating it will go slowly once it gets started.

Singapore-listed Noble
Group's 30 per cent share-slump over the past month has thrust it on
to the radar screens of Asian companies that want a bigger clout in
global commodities trading.

BLACKROCK Inc, an associate
of Keppel Corp, made a series of dealings on Keppel Land shares on
Thursday.It purchased 7,000 shares at S$4.55 apiece and sold a total
of 48,100 shares at prices ranging from S$4.53 to S$4.55 per share.

Singapore's
financial regulator will work with commodity exchanges, investors
and producers to support the development of the city-state as a
trading center, including the expansion of clearing houses in Asia.

Starting of the week was sideway stocks defied the odds,
trading higher even as most Asian stocks dropped, following declines
in US shares, as materials and technology companies led losses and
Markets waiting for the US Federal Reserve's policy statement due
later in the session for clues to when the Fed will hike interest
rates. Federal Reserve said data suggest economic growth has
moderated and officials indicated interest rates will rise at a
slower pace than previously estimated.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

SINGAPORE share prices opened higher with the Straits Times
Index (STI) up 14.97 points to 3,376.72 as the US Federal
Reserve raised the odds of a rate hike in June.

Bank of Singapore said that rate hike by the Fed in
September now looks more probable, with the US central bank
pushing back expectations for the path of rate increases over
the coming couple of years.

Blumont Group is planning a rights cum warrants issue to
raise about $27 million in net proceeds if the rights shares
are fully subscribed.

Oil resumed its slump after rallying from the lowest price
in six years as focus returned to record supply in the US, the
world's biggest consumer.

SINGPOST is set to roll out an e-commerce fulfilment
solution for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in
April.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Singapore stock news[SGX]- OIL tumbled for a seventh day, extending declines from a six-year
low, before US government data forecast to show crude stockpiles rose to
a record in the world's biggest consumer.

Futures dropped as much
as 2.4 per cent in New York. Crude inventories probably expanded by 4.4
million barrels through March 13 to 453.3 million, according to a
Bloomberg News survey before a report from the Energy Information
Administration on Wednesday.

US
crude stockpiles have continued to climb, even as companies idle drill
rigs to the fewest since 2011, bolstering speculation a global glut that
drove prices almost 50 per cent lower last year will persist. Options
traders have become the most bearish in at least five years amid signs
rising supply may strain the nation's storage capacity.

Noble Group, Asia's biggest commodities house, faces record bond
maturities and closer scrutiny of earnings amid a global resources rout
and is being punished by traders.

US dollar-denominated notes of
the company, which has the lowest investment-grade scores from the three
main rating companies, yield more than 400 basis points above
Treasuries, compared with the 317 average for top junk-rated Asian
borrowers, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show.

The cost to
protect the company's notes against non-payment has risen 144 basis
points in the last month to 412, the worst-performing in Asia and 55
above junk-rated Australian firm Fairfax Media Ltd.

Noble had
denied allegations from an anonymous group called Iceberg Research that
it overstated accounting gains, and rejected a demand for unpaid
compensation in a lawsuit from its former chief executive.

Mainboard-listed
Xpress Holdings has reported a 51.6 per cent drop in its second-quarter
net profit to S$214,000, from S$438,000 a year earlier, on the back of a
14.1 per cent drop in revenue to S$4.1 million for the quarter ended
Jan 31, 2015, from a year ago.

Xpress's results report also
highlighted the group's cash-flow problems - the group's working capital
position was negative as at Jan 31, 2015, and the net drop in cash and
cash equivalents for Q2 was S$57,000, compared to a net gain of S$5.3
million in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The group had a cash
and cash equivalent deficit of S$1.34 million for H1 2015.

Singapore stock picks[SGX]- THE Straits Times Index (STI) opened lower at 3,361, down 8.95 points
or 0.27 per cent, on Wednesday, weighed down by cautious sentiments as
commodity prices fall and nervousness increased ahead of a Federal
Reserve policy statement.

Shares of
Sinarmas Land surged 5 per cent in early-morning
trading, even as Singapore Exchange assigned a "trade
with caution" on the stock.

SINGAPORE'S
non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell by a sharp 9.7 per
cent year on year in February, following three straight
months of increase.

NOBLE Group on Tuesday said it has
repurchased US$15 million in dollar-denominated 10-year
senior notes due 2020 that offered a 6.625 per cent
coupon.

IREIT Global
hopes to double its asset size and net lettable area in
the next 12 to 18 months,It adopts an "ABBA" investment
strategy, investing in "A" assets in "B" (second-tier)
cities and "B" assets in "A" (first-tier) cities.

US stocks opened
higher on Monday after a 3-week losing skid for the
S&P 500, as a recovery in the euro helped reassure
US investors who had been concerned about the impact of
a robust dollar on the earnings of multinational
companies.

Monday, March 16, 2015

SHIPBUILDER Vard Holdings said on Saturday two affiliates of a
customer, E.R. Offshore, have filed for insolvency at a local court in
Germany.Consequently, it has terminated two shipbuilding contracts for
one platform supply vessel per affiliate, the company said.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has invested S$2 million in a data
analysis firm for a 20 per cent stake. DC Frontiers owns and operates
the Handshakes app, which applies social network analysis to capital
markets. SPH publishes The Business Times.

SINGAPORE[SGX] share prices opened lower on Monday with the Straits Times
Index (STI) down 0.75 points to 3,362.02 as at 9.04am, tracing losses in
the US markets.

Top gainers in early trading included UOB, while top losers included its peers DBS and OCBC.

Banks have underperformed since the start of the year due to
profit-taking and concerns about an economic slowdown and higher credit
costs, noted a Nomura report dated March 12.

"We believe that while some of these concerns are warranted, the
market has ignored the very positive impact of rising short-term
interest rates. In our opinion, this is the single most important
catalyst for these banks at this stage of the cycle, as it offers them
significant operating leverage," the brokerage said.

Some 61.8 million shares worth S$92.6 million changed hands as at 9.04am on Monday, with losers outnumbering gainers 91 to 57.